The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Mumbai is organising a two days session (on Sept 22 & 23, 2006) on 'Hospital Accreditation Standards' with the support of National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare Providers (NABH) and Indian Healthcare Federation (IHCF).
Dr Y P Bhatia, chairman, NABH Accreditation Committee, said: "quality is the buzzword, accreditation is the tool". Although there are many tools, which are available for setting standards, accreditation standards retained their importance, he pointed out. He stressed on the need to bring strong quality practices in the profession of health care delivery. Given that all hospitals are not created equal, a patient needs to know, am I going to the right hospital? Accreditation is the answer to this question," he added.
Till now, about 60 Indian hospitals have applied for accreditation from NABH, and all are in the process, they will receive approval soon. Though worldwide, hospitals seeking for accreditation are a voluntary initiative, more or less accreditation becomes necessary, said Dr Y P Bhatia.
The key question is how to create credibility and trust so that the patient feels he is going to the right place. "The accreditation system has been designed in a way that it benefits everyone: patients, staff, hospitals and ultimately, the community," he said. He added a rider quality and accreditation requirements would change with time, and would need periodic reviews.
Dr Mohan Thomas, Chairman, CII Western Region Healthcare Sub Group termed the requirement of accreditation standards as 'the need of the hour', Dr Thomas described the evolving scenario in which the need for standards was felt all the more. He referred to growing medical tourism as having brought the question of quality into focus, pointing out that international accreditation standards were perceived to be 'elitist', 'costly' and 'not always relevant to Indian conditions'. Now we finally have an Indian accreditation standard specific for the Hospitals and Healthcare Providers under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which would provide good quality healthcare delivery to all. "There is a growing need for an Indian benchmark, which will be best served by the accreditation standards, which the NABH accreditation will fulfil," he added.
Dr Thomas said there had been a study of hospitals world-wide in terms of being successful vis-à-vis medical tourism, and the Bangkok, Thailand based Bumangrad Hospital scored the highest last year, it treated 1,90,000 patients from 180 countries, grossing revenues of over one billion US $. "Its' strategy is simple, that a patient friendly hospital which is safety-plus. It follows accreditation standards of JCI, which is the basic American standard. If one considers that Indian doctors are trusted world-wide and are recognized as competent, the logical step is to have Indian hospitals to emulate the example, but using Indian accreditation standards," he said.
Accreditation standards would result in ensuring Indian hospitals become more accountable, provide safe treatment which would be well documented, in turn saving money and being available across the spectrum of public and private hospitals, said Dr Thomas. As medical insurance liberalizes across the country, the need for standards in treatment would be felt acutely, as payouts on medical treatment will become a major issue in the near future, he pointed out.
Given that Indian hospitals face the absence of standards, he said it was the CII that initiated the 'first push' towards creating Indian accreditation standards for hospitals under the leadership of Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Healthcare.
NABH has on its panel, qualified and trained assessors for objective evaluation of hospitals. The assessment team will include two or more healthcare professionals. The team will comprise of clinicians, healthcare administrators, nursing supervisors, specialists, where required, depending on the size and scope of services being rendered by hospitals. As per the NABH, team will be having two assessors; one will be clinician and one hospital administrator. The team of three or more assessors will comprise amongst clinicians, administrators, nursing supervisors, specialists.
The persons having credentials, would need to qualify in 5 days NABH assessors training programme. The successful candidates from the training programme would be formally receiving the NABH accreditation as per criteria of registration. Till now 90 candidates has applied for NABH accreditation approval and 40 are in the pipeline.
NABH has made some statute for the Assessors like for clinician: MBBS with 10 years of experience of which 5 years should be in a hospital, for administrator PG in Management or Hospital Administration with minimum of 10 years of experience of which 5 years being in the hospital administration, for Nursing assessor: B.Sc or M.Sc. nursing with 10 years of experience or diploma in general nursing and midwifery with 15 years of experience. In both the cases, minimum of 5 years experience should be in supervisory capacity in a hospital.
CII and IHCF have been working closely with the ministry of health and family welfare and NABH on the accreditation guidelines, Dr Y P Bhatia said. "The standards provide framework for quality assurance and quality improvement for hospitals and nursing homes, with emphasis on patient safety and care, and they are equally applicable to public and private hospitals as also nursing homes," he added. He explained that NABH was a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (QCI), set up with the cooperation of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and the Indian Health Industry. "The board will cater to the much desired needs of the patients, consumers and will set up standards for the progress of the healthcare industry," he added.